Dancing Queen Gone Bad

Hey everyone, This weekend Thomas and I went with Matt and Tracy to see Mamma Mia at the Denver Center for Performaing Arts. I was very excited because I knew the music was all of Abba's old songs, songs I dearly love. I mistakenly thought the plot was going to be around the actual band Abba - how they formed or the story of their days on tour, etc. I expected lots of 70s outfits, disco balls and blond hair. Instead the curtain drew back to reveal the plainest set I have ever seen in my life. I eventually realized that it was meant to be an inn/cafe in a modern-day Greek village. The actresses appeared and instead of being blond disco divas, they were 2000-era hippies. The plot centered around Sophie, a 20 year old Mary Lou Retton lookalike about to get married. She was distressed because she read her mother Donna's diary and found out the father she never was any one of three different men. As the play progresses, the three men arrive in town as do Rosie and Tanya, two women Donna used to be in a band with back in the 70s.

There were many faults I found with Mamma Mia:

• The look and abilities of the cast - they all seemed like munchkin rejects from Wicked, except for the actress playing Tanya - she was great
• There was shockingly little dancing. The cast stood rooted to the ground during most of their solos. Finally in the second act there were a few larger scale dance numbers
• The quality of the entire show. We agreed that the show's sophistication was on par with an episode of Saved by the Bell. I would never in my wildest dreams have imagined that this is the quality of a show I could see on Broadway, yet it was staged by a touring Broadway company.

I in no way want to sound ageist, but I could not help noticing that all the greyhairs surrounding me were howling throughout the musical. They all throughly enjoyed it. So was it us? Do you have to be very young or on the other side of 50 to appreciate Mamma Mia? Or is it that musicals in general are in decline? The last one I saw was Wicked and I was a little disappointed in it, particularly the anti-climacic finale. But in comparison to Mamma Mia it was a masterpiece. There was spectacle and some degree of complexity in the story. I've come to the conclusion that I'm better off sticking with plays. I completely enjoyed a recent production of Steel Magnolias and the two off-Broadway plays I saw last year. This is disheartening because when a musical is done well - Rent or The Lion King - there's nothing like it.

Ads for Mamma Mia all say that the audience ends up dancing in the aisle. We did end up on our feet after being forced into an ill-deserved standing ovation. At that time, the cast gets dressed up in glam-rock outfits and performed a couple of numbers singing and dancing. That turned out to be the highlight of the show. Why they saved it for the encore is beyond me.

The night was saved thanks to a fabulous dinner at Rioja, a restaurant I'd never been to on Larimer. Every single bite - the bread, the salad, and the dinner was delicious and the service was excellent. If you're downtown, it's definitely worth a shot.

-sunday